The Giants were hoping to get a boost on the offensive line this season by welcoming tackle Will Beatty back into the fold. Unfortunately, that will not happen. Coach Tom Coughlin told reporters that Will Beatty will remain on the PUP list and have rotator cuff surgery, ending his season before it could begin (Twitter link via Dan Graziano of ESPN.com). The rotator cuff issue is a different injury than the one which initially kept him sidelined, but it’s possible that one problem triggered the other.
Back in May, Beatty suffered a torn pectoral muscle which instantly ruled him out for the first half of the 2015 season. Beatty’s injury was a huge blow for the Giants, who used their first-round pick in this year’s draft on a tackle in an effort to solidify their offensive line. Beatty was one of the league’s more effective left tackles in 2014, grading as a positive contributor as both a run- and pass-blocker, according to Pro Football Focus. PFF ranked him 14th overall out of 84 qualified players at the position.
With Beatty out for the year, the Giants will continue to use first-round pick Ereck Flowers at left tackle. This offseason, the Giants will have to figure out whether they want to retain Beatty given his health struggles in 2015. Beatty is set to earn $5.5MM in 2016 and Big Blue can clear out roughly ~$4MM in cap space by letting him go. By the same token, Beatty has been a strong presence on the Giants’ O-Line for years now and he did not miss a game from 2012-2014.
I’d have to imagine they’ll bring him back, and if they do, I’d assume they would keep him at left tackle and give Flowers a full offseason to get used to RT. But if Beatty had come back in 2015, one possibility was that they would leave Flowers at LT, since he’s slowly getting more comfortable there, and put Beatty at RT. If the Giants are content with Flowers at LT moving forward, Beatty’s cap hit in 2016 as an RT would be much tougher to take.